Page 39 of The Moonlight Healers

Louise looked up sharply. “What sale?”

Jim inspected her face for a moment, but then glanced at his watch. “You know I best be getting on. Have someone coming by for ten crates of strawberries.”

Louise’s worry expanded. “Jim?”

He started to walk away but turned before he got far. “Don’t be stupid, kid. It’s not a magic trick. It matters, what you do with that gift of yours.” He held her eyes intently. “Do you understand?”

There was a seriousness in his tone that jarred her. But before she could parse it, he was gone.

* * *

It was nearly dusk by the time Louise reached her grandmother’s house, the sun low over the indigo mountains.

To her surprise, her grandmother wasn’t waiting for her in the living room. The kitchen was empty as well, except for a teakettle boiling over with a loud hiss. Louise quickly removed it from the heat and then went upstairs to talk to her grandmother.

She looked up from the landing as her grandmother’s voice floated down.

“Thanks, Sam, I’ll stop by sometime tomorrow to sign it.”

Louise knew she shouldn’t be eavesdropping, but her grandfather’s name piqued her interest. Even though they had stayed cordial, fine to come together for her graduation and othermajor family events, as far as she knew they weren’t in regular communication.

“I will,” Camille said. “I appreciate that, and your help with all of this. And with…everything. I really do…bye now.”

There was silence and then footsteps as Camile headed her way. She stopped short when she saw Louise.

“Sorry, I didn’t…” Louise said. Her grandmother’s eyes were bloodshot. “Is everything okay?”

“Fine!” Camille said brightly. Louise noticed her grandmother’s hands shaking slightly at her sides.

“Just some business odds and ends.”

But Louise knew her grandfather no longer had any business ties to the orchard. “Grandma, what—”

Before Louise could finish, there was a loud knock on the door. Camille moved past Louise down the stairs and went to open it.

“Hello, Mrs. Winston. I’m Peter, Louise’s friend. I’m sorry to just show up like this but is she here?”

Louise was halfway to the door before she was aware her legs were in motion. She didn’t care if things were uncomfortable. She didn’t care if she had to lie to him. She realized, with a force that almost knocked her over, that what she had needed more than anything was to see him, to know that he was alive and whole, that he couldn’t be taken from her again. She threw herself into his arms.

“You didn’t sound like yourself,” he managed to say as she buried her face into his chest and held him in a way that felt necessary for her survival. “On the phone.”

She let go and looked up at him, then nudged him playfully on the shoulder. “You could have let me know you were on your way.”

“Thought I should keep both hands on the wheel this time.” He didn’t smile despite the joke. Instead, he looked at her the way he had at Kyle’s party, with clarity and intention, and shefelt suddenly self-conscious, embarrassed by the way she’d embraced him.

Camille cleared her throat from behind them. “Louise, you’re being impolite. Please invite your friend inside. Why don’t you two go have a seat in the garden and I’ll bring you something to drink.”

* * *

Camille set two glasses down on the picnic table as the sky glowed orange over the mountains. Even with the sun low, the air was unrelentingly humid, so thick that even the frogs and crickets were listless, punctuating the early evening with thin croaks and chirps.

“Can I get you kids anything else?” Camille asked as she swatted a swarm of gnats. “You sure you’re not hungry, Peter?”

“No ma’am, thank you, though,” Peter said politely.

Louise felt herself fidgeting with her hair and put her hands in her lap. She was suddenly nervous to be alone with him, worried they would fight again like they had in the car, or that he’d see right through her, discern that she was lying about the accident.

“Thanks, Grandma. I’m fine too.”

---